Penthouse

Robert and Barbara Rohdie's penthouse in The Hamptons features a breathtaking view of Heathrow's golf course and lake. However, it's the award-winning kitchen that causes most visitors to do a double take.The kitchen was featured in the April 1987 issue of Builder magazine and the same year won an Aurora Award for best kitchen. Aurora Awards are sponsored by the Southeast Builders Conference.Architect Mark Woodbury, then of Fugleberg Koch Inc. of Winter Park, and Barbara Rohdie designed the kitchen.

Actor Vince Vaughn has cut the asking price for his 12,000-square-foot, 19-room triplex penthouse on Michigan Avenue to $16.75 million from $18.4 million. Vaughn listed the five-bedroom unit for $18.4 million in the spring, though he reportedly had been informally shopping it for $24.7 million in the summer of 2011. He paid $12 million for the penthouse in 2006.

The great Jordan property sell-off of 2012 continues. On Tuesday, Juanita Jordan, the former wife of Bulls star Michael Jordan , placed her Lake Shore Drive penthouse on the market for $5 million. The move comes less than three weeks after Michael Jordan placed his 56,000-square-foot Highland Park compound up for sale for $29 million. The Jordans, who divorced in 2006, bought both properties during their marriage. In their divorce settlement, Michael wound up with the Highland Park mansion and Juanita kept the 8,000-square-foot penthouse, which takes up the building's 39th and 40th floors, plus its roof space.

Shepard Osherow, co-founder of investment research firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., is trying again to sell his Highland Beach penthouse condominium. Listed at $9.85 million furnished, the five-bedroom residence incorporates four penthouses and has nine terraces. It's located on the top two floors of Toscana North condo, 3700 S. Ocean Blvd. With 9,290 of living space, it's the largest penthouse condo on the market in Palm Beach County, said the listing agent, Senada Adzem of the Douglas Elliman firm.

Five years after local real-estate professionals wrote off the downtown Orlando condominium market as a dark-windowed wasteland of half-empty towers, urban lifestyles and downtown views have sparked bidding wars on upscale units. One tipping point in Orlando's condo market was the recent $1.3 million cash sale of a marble-laden penthouse on the top floor of the Sanctuary downtown. The buyer was former hedge-fund executive Joseph Haleski, one of the new owners of the resurrected Solar Bears minor-league hockey team, records show.

Penthouse magazine's Bob Guccione is considering running a nude photo spread on Gennifer Flowers, journalist, singer and friend of presidential candidate Bill Clinton.Dane Hall, Penthouse publicity director, issued this statement:''Penthouse is considering photos of Gennifer Flowers that have been submitted to us. No decision has been made; however, Bob Guccione did say that if he does decide to run with the photos, there will be a big surprise associated with them.''Guccione has had the photos for about six weeks, Penthouse said.

There's a chill on rumors that Gennifer Flowers, romantically linked for a while to Bill Clinton, has accepted $500,000 to undress for the cameras of Penthouse magazine.The word is that Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione was a Ross Perot supporter eager to embarrass Clinton in his run for the White House. Now that Perot has jumped ship, Penthouse officials will say only that Flowers' unveiling is ''under consideration.''

TALLAHASSEE -- For years, Tom Gallagher was known as a Tallahassee playboy. But now he's a family man, so it's no surprise that the Republican candidate for governor has rejected $1,000 in campaign contributions from Penthouse magazine. Gallagher quickly returned two $500 checks from the adult-entertainment empire that arrived June 30, Alberto Martinez, campaign spokesman, said Thursday. "They were bundled in a group of checks that arrived and were noticed when we did our processing," Martinez said.

Some deride it as an unholy alliance in the Holy Land. Feminists charge it is democracy perverted.Nonetheless, the publisher of a racy Israeli arts magazine has teamed up with Bob Guccione to unveil Penthouse's first Middle East edition: a spinoff of America's popular skin magazine written in Hebrew.''It lacks even basic intellectual content written in normal human language,'' wrote a reviewer in the newspaper Haaretz, as the magazine hit newsstands Friday, the eve of the Jewish Sabbath. ''Unmercifully, I wish this thing failure.

Weighing in on the subject of sexual harassment (or just sex) these days, is like walking into a room where everyone is screaming at the top of his or her lungs. If I say, ''Can I just add a word or two here?'' everyone is going to scream, ''NO!!''But not everyone's first job, right out of college, was as an employee at Penthouse magazine. Mine was.Yes, I thought that might get your attention. It always does. In the 16 years since, I keep expecting people I meet to say, ''You SLIME! How could you take money from that DISGUSTING organization?

Five years after local real-estate professionals wrote off the downtown Orlando condominium market as a dark-windowed wasteland of half-empty towers, urban lifestyles and downtown views have sparked bidding wars on upscale units. One tipping point in Orlando's condo market was the recent $1.3 million cash sale of a marble-laden penthouse on the top floor of the Sanctuary downtown. The buyer was former hedge-fund executive Joseph Haleski, one of the new owners of the resurrected Solar Bears minor-league hockey team, records show.

The great Jordan property sell-off of 2012 continues. On Tuesday, Juanita Jordan, the former wife of Bulls star Michael Jordan , placed her Lake Shore Drive penthouse on the market for $5 million. The move comes less than three weeks after Michael Jordan placed his 56,000-square-foot Highland Park compound up for sale for $29 million. The Jordans, who divorced in 2006, bought both properties during their marriage. In their divorce settlement, Michael wound up with the Highland Park mansion and Juanita kept the 8,000-square-foot penthouse, which takes up the building's 39th and 40th floors, plus its roof space.

'Cougars' rejected by cruise line: Carnival Cruise Lines won't be sailing anymore with a boatload of "cougars" and their willing prey, reports The Associated Press. The Miami-based company has turned down a request from a singles travel group to book another cruise with the cougar theme -- which refers to older women who date younger men. The singles group says the ban is unfounded. They point to their first cruise on Carnival's Elation in December that drew about 300 women and the men they call "cubs."

The building frenzy that has created too many downtown condominiums has also spawned something few people think about: too many downtown penthouses. All told, there are more than three dozen of these exclusive units in various stages of construction floating over Orlando like an Isleworth in the sky. With the stock market taking a nose dive and concerns intensifying over just how bad the housing slump will be -- and how long it will last -- these skyboxes of urban living are telling their own tale.

The real estate market may be cooling, but folks with big bucks are still buying downtown. Steve Kodsi, developer of the Star Tower condo in southeast downtown, said he sold two penthouse apartments for about $2 million each. Kodsi said the 100-unit tower has just 17 unsold condos. Meanwhile, developers of The Tradition Towers at the University Club site said they recently sold a $2.3 million penthouse. Snakes in your phone? If you've answered your telephone recently and heard actor Samuel L. Jackson deliver a personalized message about the new movie Snakes on a Plane, thank a local company.

A penthouse marketing office for a real estate brokerage with international ties will open early next year atop the north tower of Premiere Trade Plaza in downtown Orlando. "This will be something like Orlando has never seen before," said Roger Soderstrom, owner of Lake Mary-based Stirling Sotheby's International Realty. Soderstrom said Thursday he is buying the 16th-floor penthouse of the building at Orange Avenue and Pine Street. The 10,000-square-foot office also has about 10,000 square feet of outside deck.

A woman featured this year in Penthouse magazine was shot to death in what might have been an attempted car theft, police said. Sherry Dawn Dunson, 22, was shot by a man Friday while sitting in a girlfriend's Mercedes-Benz parked at a service station, homicide Detective Kenny Williamson said. Dunson was Penthouse's Pet of the Month in May. She was sitting in the car while a friend made a call from a pay telephone, Williamson said. A car pulled up beside the Mercedes, and someone in the car talked with Dunson before a shot was fired, Williamson said.

Actor Vince Vaughn has cut the asking price for his 12,000-square-foot, 19-room triplex penthouse on Michigan Avenue to $16.75 million from $18.4 million. Vaughn listed the five-bedroom unit for $18.4 million in the spring, though he reportedly had been informally shopping it for $24.7 million in the summer of 2011. He paid $12 million for the penthouse in 2006.

Playboy Enterprises Inc. and Penthouse Media Group Inc., publishers of men's magazines, may make adult movies for portable video players such as Apple Computer Inc.'s new iPod to capitalize on soaring demand for the devices. Penthouse is in talks with "a number" of companies that build the players to provide adult videos, Chief Executive Officer Marc Bell said Wednesday. Chicago-based Playboy also is in talks with new developers, CEO Christie Hefner said. Playboy and Penthouse, both suffering from slumping revenue at their magazines, are ramping up video production to bolster profit.

TALLAHASSEE -- Tom Gallagher, a Republican candidate for governor, said Friday that he has rejected $3,000 in campaign donations that came with connections to an adult magazine. Gallagher, the state's chief financial officer, said he sent back six $500 checks from companies tied to Penthouse because they did not reflect his conservative views. Two of the checks, for a total of $1,000, came with the Penthouse name on them. The other four were sent from holding companies affiliated with the magazine.